This invention relates generally to web-based information and, more specifically, to discovery and tracking of web-based advertisements.
Publisher websites such as newspaper web pages, television station web pages, web log web pages, magazine web pages, social networking web pages, microblogging web pages, and other internet-based online publishing sources often include advertisements for companies and products.
Advertisements on a publisher website may include images, videos, text, animations, or other visual or audio messages. These advertisements are sometimes referred to as advertisement creatives.
Each creative on a publisher webpage may be associated with a link such as an internet address that, when accessed, redirects a viewer of the publisher webpage to another webpage (sometimes referred to as a landing page) that is associated with the product, service, company, etc. that being advertised.
Advertisements may be placed on a publisher web page by a variety of sources. A company may purchase an advertisement block on the publisher web page directly from the publisher, through an advertising network, through an advertising exchange, through a demand side platform (DSP) or through some combination of these or other advertising channels.
Because of these various pathways in which an advertisement can be placed on a given publisher website, it can be difficult for publishers to keep track of which advertisers are advertising on their webpage and advertisers may find it difficult to keep track of which publishers are hosting their advertisements and by which advertising channel the advertisements are being placed. This can be problematic for advertisers that desire to efficiently reach a target audience or for publishers that desire to efficiently manage available advertising space.
Common advertisement tracking systems use internet exploring applications such as web crawlers to determine which publishers are hosting advertisements for a given advertiser and which advertisers are advertising on a given publisher website. However, these advertisement tracking systems are unable to determine which pathways (advertising channels) are being used to place a given advertisement on a given publisher webpage.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved systems for discovering and tracking internet based advertisements.